The Pyramid Club

New York City in the 1970s and 1980s was a city full of legendary, often notorious nightclubs, from Max's Kansas City to CBGB. The Pyramid Club in the East Village may not have the kind of name recognition as those two famously grungy venues, but it is nonetheless one of the city's more influential nightclubs.

The Pyramid opened in 1979 in the groundfloor of a tenement building constructed in 1876. The building, which once housed a fairly rundown Polish bar, reinvented itself with the 1979 opening as a club that welcomed all manner of New Yorker, the more avant garde or eccentric, the better. The Pyramid quickly developed a reputation as an integral part of the East Village's gay and drag scene, at a time when drag was largely confined to gritty, underground venues.

By the early 1980s, the Pyramid Club was known for a politically conscious form of drag performance art. Some of the most influential drag performers of that era were regular performers at the club, including a young RuPaul, Lady Bunny, and Lypsinka.RuPaul's first New York City show was at the Pyramid in 1982 and it was across the street in Tompkins Square Park in 1985 that Lady Bunny hosted the first Wigstock Festival. The event, which began spontaneously, became an annual event for a number of years and helped to bring drag into the mainstream, laying the groundwork for wider acceptance and the popularity of shows like RuPaul's "Drag Race" and films such as "The Birdcage," "Kinky Boots," and "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert."

As one of the most popular venues in the East Village, the Pyramid Club attracted a diverse clientele and hosted many famous musical acts early in their careers, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana. Madonna appeared at her first AIDS benefit at the Pyramid. More recently, the club was featured in the HBO documentary "Wig," which was released in 2019.

The Pyramid is perhaps the only one of the great 1980s nightclubs (once described by New York Mag as a "temple of iniquity") that is still open. In 2012, the building was declared a landmark and is now part of the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District. There is ongoing talk about naming the club itself a landmark because of its trailblazing role as a drag mecca.

History , The Pyramid Club. Accessed August 29th 2020. https://thepyramidclub.com/manhattan-east-village-the-pyramid-club-nyc-history.

Knick, Dawson. The Pyramid Club: New York City's First Drag Landmark, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. July 25th 2019. Accessed August 29th 2020. https://gvshp.org/blog/2019/07/25/the-pyramid-club-new-york-citys-first-drag-landmark/.

Wortham, Jenna. Is 'RuPaul's Drag Race' the Most Radical Show on Television?, New York Times Magazine. January 24th 2018. Accessed August 29th 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/magazine/is-rupauls-drag-race-the-most-radical-show-on-tv.html.

Berman, Andrew. 23 LGBT Landmarks of the East Village and Noho, 6sqft. June 17th 2019. Accessed August 29th 2020. https://www.6sqft.com/23-lgbt-landmarks-of-the-east-village-and-noho/.